


Ran to the Devil

by aderyn



Series: Compounds or Stars [22]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: 221b, ASiB, Gen, TGG, THoB, TRF, tea with the devil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-08
Updated: 2012-03-08
Packaged: 2017-11-01 15:38:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/358480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aderyn/pseuds/aderyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“The city 's gone off in bells, in bells, the districts all afire --Shoreditch and Stepford and Bailey and Bow--the districts all aflame.”</p>
<p>If convenient, come; if not your division, come anyway: your city’s ablaze.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ran to the Devil

**Author's Note:**

> References to the bells of Shoreditch, Stepford, Bailey, Bow, etc. from the traditional English nursery rhyme, “Oranges and Lemons”; title and subtitles, (of course!) from the traditional spiritual “Sinnerman.”
> 
> Thanks to [ whitefang3927](http://archiveofourown.org/users/whitefang3927/pseuds/whitefang3927), for making me think about poem!fic.

_“Great fire burning through my house”-XTC_

  
**The Lord said, go to the devil**

The city’s gone off in bells, in bells, the districts all afire --Shoreditch and Stepford and Bailey and Bow--the districts all aflame.  
  
The Met’s set off by the fingers of the imp: all matches and clappers, all winks and gems. (What audacious 1’s and 0’s those are; they might as well be flames.)  Great fire, thinks Sally, alight with the chase, riding shotgun with her sooty eyes.

It’s all about to go up, sir. ( _You want it._ ) It starts out with a spark:  
  
If convenient, come; if not your division, come anyway: your city’s ablaze.  
  
***

**Can’t you see I need you, rock?**

You ran to me, ran to me; you came cross town into the flame that had just been, into the nonchalance of the blast zone.

You set off the alarms, though you don’t care what fire exposes.

You followed me into the devil’s hollow.

You loved the explosions that never were.

***

**He was waitin’**

I met the Gentleman at the crossroads. (Of course I did.) I had tea with the Devil; he owed me a light.  I put my fingers into the fire (Of course I did.) It’s not the first time I’ve set it off.

And you came running--and ringing, St. Clement’s, St. Margaret’s, Whitechapel’s bells.


End file.
